With its strong community spirit, deep civic roots, and vibrant mix of parks and unique businesses, Aspinwall is a borough that encapsulates all that we love about the Pittsburgh region. It’s the kind of place where people look out for each other, where they care about their neighbors and about contributing to a better future for the next generation.
That’s exactly why the proposed development of the riverfront – including residences and a mix of public domain on private property – reflects the values that have been expressed to us by the community. And it’s why I am committed to incorporating the voice of all the borough’s residents in our plans for this project, not only the opinions of a vocal minority. Because the bottom line is that good public planning becomes great with broad participation; it is impossible with an every-man-for-himself mentality. It means listening to all the stakeholders affected by a proposed development and coming up with a project that reflects everyone’s best interests.
It means listening to the taxpayer who will benefit from the added revenues of high-end development, money the borough can use to upgrade an aging infrastructure and ensure its viability for all.
It means listening to the small business owner who will benefit from the patronage of people who want to live in these new residences specifically so they can walk to the shops and restaurants for which the borough is known and spend money in their local community.
It means listening to the residents who want to showcase their borough as a regional gem.
It means creating a place where longtime Aspinwall residents can go when they want to stay local, but can no longer live in a three-story house, or where expatriates who left the borough can return home again and enjoy the community from a new vantage point.
It means keeping faith with the neighboring boroughs of Sharpsburg and O’Hara, and embracing a proposal that benefits the entire region.
Our commitment to preserving the integrity of Aspinwall’s identity is strong, and we are grateful to the borough’s council for its support of a process for everyone to offer input. This commitment is why we have modified the traffic plan for our project to include efforts for a flyover that would greatly reduce – potentially by half – the additional traffic on Freeport Road.
It is why we plan to check our traffic impact at each stage of the development, a process that will require permits and borough approvals – and public review — in each phase. This is the most accurate way to measure the actual traffic generated by the project and ensure that it is aligned with what the road system can handle.
It is why we want the people who will live in these proposed homes to have direct access to the roads of the borough where they will pay taxes and spend their money – roads that lead to vital services such as the hospital.
Our company prides itself on improving the quality of life in the communities where we build our projects. Our driving principle is to leave a site better than when we found it. Our work illustrates this principle in action: Drawing on input from civic groups, government entities, and public input, we returned a decaying neighborhood to vibrancy and significantly upgraded public transportation in the process. Another project in one of Pittsburgh’s most recognized and traditional neighborhoods allowed us to create housing where people could age in place in the community they loved, while simultaneously respecting the wishes of an adjacent historic church.
Our proposed development could generate tax revenue that approaches 10 percent of Aspinwall’s current municipal budget. Without development, the land generates nothing, the public does not gain additional access to the riverfront, and businesses lose access to a new, high-end customer base. Essentially, what was once an industrial dump remains an industrial dump, when it could be so much more.
Robert Kennedy once famously said: “Progress is a nice word. But change is its motivator, and change has its enemies.”
As we look forward to a robust fall of community participation, I urge the people of Aspinwall to work with us, as together, we transform an industrial scrapyard into a public and private development that will be truly transformational for the borough, neighboring communities and the region.